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STORY: A roadside bomb killed at least seven people near a Shi'ite procession in Pakistan on Saturday (November 24), police said, while security forces are on high alert over fears of large-scale sectarian attacks on the minority sect across the country.

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed U.S. ally, is suspending phone coverage in many cities this weekend, an important one in the Shi'ite Muslim calendar, after a series of bomb attacks on Shi'ites triggered by mobile phones.

Hardline Sunnis have threatened more attacks as the Shi'ite mourning month of Muharram comes to a climax. More than a dozen people have already been killed this week observing Muharram.

Saturday's attack occurred in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan's northwest, a stronghold of al-Qaeda-linked Sunni militant groups who regard Shi'ites as non-Muslims and have stepped up sectarian attacks in a bid to destabilize Pakistan.

Four children were among those killed by a 8-10 kg bomb set off by a television remote control device because cellphones were not operational, police said. Pakistani television stations showed footage of children in hospital beds, who were among 17 wounded.